[closing bell rings] >> while you set up growth you can get hurt very badly. cheryl: sarge, we're closing at session highs on the claman "countdown." nasdaq up 108. here we go. "after the bell." take it away. connell: we kick off the week with a rally, quite a rally on wall street. stocks surging on hopes for an economic recovery and also we had some pretty strong economic data today. cheryl says we closed at the high. that is pretty good. i'm connell mcshane. melissa: i'm melissa francis this is "after the bell." the dow closed up 2% led by boeing. shares climb as test flights begin of the 737 max. fox business team coverage. blake burman is at the white house, jackie deangelis is in the newsroom and edward lawrence is in washington. let's kick it off with edward with breaking news on the fed. edward. reporter: exactly. the federal reserve chairman

jerome powell's chairman testimony tomorrow what he will tell the house financial services committee. just released a more upbeat tone than he was in his last appearance before congress. he is going to say the second quarter gdp is largest drop in history. the coronavirus was met with swift action, swift and decisive action by both congress and the federal reserve. he will say because of that action he believes long-term damage to the economy may have been limited. now powell welcomes a bounce-back in economic activity he has been seeing. he says though the path forward remains uncertainty and a full recovery will be unlikely until people feel confident that the coronavirus has been contained and it is safe to go outside. now he says interest rates will remain near zero until they are confident the federal reserve is confident that the economy has recovered. he says, the federal reserve will use their full range of tools in order to support the economy. we're looking at low interest rates now for at least the next

couple years. back to you guys. melissa: all right. edward. thank you for that. connell: edward, tomorrow's news today literally. let's get to jackie deangelis on today's news, this market rally and you know, quite a rally it was after a rough week last week. reporter: absolutely. a little bit of a comeback, connell. the market seeing a 579 point gain at the end of the day. that was the dow jones industrials. that was largely because of the optimism about reopening, right? we've seen this seesaw back and forth, right? the market spooked a little bit last week but this week we're moving forward and cases among the coronavirus among the younger population not ending up in the amount of hospitalizations. that is what the market is holding up for at least the moment here. one of the reasons the dow so much higher is boeing itself, trading up 194 bucks.

because the 737 max conducted its first test flight today. that is through the faa there will be three days of hurdles to go through but boeing is looking to get this plane back up in the air by the end of the year. this is a crucial step doing that. that is why you saw boeing's stock jump so high today, guys. connell: jackie, thank you. good day for stocks. melissa. melissa: so infections spiking in part of the u.s. as some states are reversing plans to reopen. blake burman is live for us with the latest from the white house. reporter: melissa, the white house says it approves of the pricing model it put forward for remdesivir. that is the drug made by gilead used in hospitals under the supervision of doctors to treat covid-19 patients. there has been some success with it. the price sheet if you want to call it that, $390 a vial for the federal government, $520 for insurance companies. over course of five-day

treatment that amounts to roughly $2300 for the government, $3300 for the insurers. senator bernie sanders is among those with concerns, describing that in a tweet quote, price gouging. the white house says it is the right price point. >> if they buy remdesivir for say $3200, which is the wholesale acquisition cost and that remdesivir drugs saves that patient time in the hospital, they only spend a third of the time in the hospital as a patient without remdesivir that would mean that the hospitals are actually profiting because they're getting the patient out early. so that's, basically all cops down to saying that the patient will not see that cost. reporter: over the weekend the health and human services secretary alex azar had an ominous warning saying, quote, the window is closing end quote, when it comes to combating covid-19 spread. he was asked about that this morning and exactly what he meant? >> this is a real call to

action. we've all got to as americans act responsibly, even as we reopen, get back to work, back to school, back to health care, we've got to practice social distancing. we've got to use face coverings when we can't practice social distancing. reporter: you hear him talk about masks when there can't be social distancing. the press secretary said today that president trump believes wearing a mask is the personal choice of an individual and people should follow the guidance put into place by their local leaders. melissa, connell. back to you. melissa: blake, thank you. connell. connell: more virus news, melissa. government officials in states like texas and florida working to control the spread and casey stegall live in dallas with more how all that is going. casey. reporter: connell, good to see you. the white house also saying today in that afternoon press briefing there are still coronavirus embers that have to be put out around the country and no doubt texas is one of them. you know over the weekend

vice president mike pence and dr. deborah birx made a trip here to the lone star state to meet with local health officials and positive greg abbott. after the state logged days of record-setting numbers, both of new infections and hospitalizations. here is governor abbott. >> we need to understand that covid-19 has taken a very swift and very dangerous turn in texas over just the past few weeks. over just the past few weeks the daily number of cases have gone from an average of about 2,000, to more than 5000 per day. reporter: california governor gavin newsom ordering bars in seven of the state's counties to close following the number of cases rising among young people. he urged the closure in eight other counties but that has not been required in those places as of yet. the golden state has more than 211,000 confirmed coronavirus cases. in florida the communities of

miami-dade, broward, monroe, palm beach counties all closing beaches for the fourth of july holiday weekend. that state also ordered suspension of alcohol consumption acrossbars across the whole state. governor ron desantis largely attributing hike in new infection numbers to the hike in increased testing. there is no mask requirement for the whole state of florida and growing list of cities and counties passed their own mandates. that now includes jacksonville which starts today. as we know, that is also the host city for this year's republican national convention. so interesting to see how that will play out for the upcoming convention there in august. melissa, connell? connell: yep. interesting indeed. casey, thank you. casey stegall in dallas. melissa. melissa: here now is dan henninger from the "wall street journal" he is deputy editorial page editor and fox news contributor. first of all you think that the republican convention was moved

to jacksonville a little too fast or, goodness, now it is becoming a hot spot? what are your thoughts on that? >> well -- melissa: moving -- >> convention -- yeah. and so it got moved up to there to jacksonville and i think they're going to have to deal with it. maybe the president has been a little bit too fast and loose on not worrying about the virus now that it is spreading. probably, sort of a market so to speak is going to take care of that. people will simply not show up if it is become a hot spot and it will be a very small convention. melissa: so, speaking of the market, why are we seeing this kind of a bounce today on a day when all of the headlines seem to focus on the fact that we're worse off in terms of fighting the coronavirus than we thought we were? >> well, melissa, i think it is because the market, i mean there is a lot at stake there.

i think the market is taking a very close bloodless look at what is going on and what is going on is indeed a rise in cases. everyone keeps reporting, the record rice in cases. but that does not suggest that we're seeing the rate of death per 100,000 that we did earlier. in fact the united states on a basis of deaths per 100,000 is still at 38, well below most of the nations of europe. so most of the cases that are occurring now are hitting young people and i think what market watchers are trying to pay attention to is how many of these new cases are people who end up staying at home, sick with the flu and how many go into the hospital and how serious are those hospitalizations? how many are merely staying in the hospital? how many are going into intensive care units and things like that? if those rates stay below the rates we saw in march and april, then i think the market has reason to feel positive about

getting through this spurt. which we really did know would come eventually. melissa: yeah. so about 50% of the new cases that are rising we learned at the coronavirus task force meeting are among those people under 35 years of age. when you look at various states the hospital capacity is starting to tick upwards. it is not in the area of real danger yet but we are seeing places where it is getting close to 85 and higher. it is a balancing act between its spread and how much is causing fatalities in hospital surge. we're still in the point we don't know how this is going to turn out. that is why we hear experts saying the window to control this is closing. that is hard to understand what does that mean? the window to get this thing under control is closing? what is the magic under control do you think?

>> well the magic under control is a lot higher levels of immunity and we're not there yet. i mean i'm being fairly positive in a market sense what we're seeing, but i don't think i can be very positive about the behavior we're seeing out there. we're having this surge among young people because, melissa, we also, saw all the scenes of crowded bars, crowded beaches, crowded parties. nobody has a mask on. they're crowded together. the reality is we do now know how this virus gets spread. it mainly gets spread by people with heavy virus loads, spreading it through their mouths and noses, either through loud talking or coughing and sneezing but a lot of it is loud talking as you would see in bars and you would think now people would now begin to show some more sense of self-responsibility about this behavior. i have mean, there are people, who are just, i think, that authorities are becoming

frustrated by the fact that so many young people don't seem to care but now they are getting sick. some of them are getting seriously ill and inevitably some of these cases are going to damage the most vulnerable parts of the population. so i think maybe what the authorities should be doing is be appealing directly to some of these younger people to start behaving more responsibly, to wear the mask. it is not that big of a deal, to get us through, getting through this coronavirus pandemic. melissa: i wonder if that is a larger group? if it is harder to appeal to that group and would make more sense to take the people who are vulnerable and focus on cocooning and mandating around them, the people that are going to get very sick from this as opposed to the happy-go-lucky group that is going out there and picking it up, spreading it all over the place but not necessarily getting very sick? in other words, maybe we're

focusing on the wrong people? what are your thoughts? >> i think the more vulnerable groups, older people and such are already self-isolating. i think they have pretty much gone to ground. for instance, the president's big rally in tulsa, i believe the numbers were down in large part because older people did not want to go and risk it. it is much more difficult with people with comorbidities, diabetes and heart disease and hypertension and those people should be identified and probably themselves should begin to self-isolate. once we start protecting those vulnerable populations, or people working in like meatpacking factories, close together, possibly we can continue to go forward with the reopening of the economy which is so necessary. we cannot go back, melissa, to the lockdown model that we were in months ago. that is not going to work either. melissa: no. that is why the bad behavior makes so little sense because if you go out there, you go to a

bar and you spread it everywhere, you're slowing down the reopening. so it is not just getting other people sick. it is also, you know, taking longer for us to get back to life as normal with your actions. dan, thank you so much. we appreciate your time. connell. >> good to be with you. connell: melissa, more to come on all of this as we're bracing for an economic recovery. there is a survey for ceos that came out. they're sounding the alarm of actually bouncing back. we have details for you coming back next. the fight to defund the nypd. mayor bill de blasio's latest move to cut a billion dollars from the police department's budget and the impact that could have on local businesses. we'll talk about it. fighting to get sports back on the field. students at one ivy league school threatening legal action. stick around for the details. we'll be right back car insuran so you only pay for what you need. i wish i could shake your hand. granted.

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♪. connell: so stocks surging today on hopes for a strong recovery. tomorrow, is the last trading day of the quarter. the dow, s&p 500 are on pace for the best quarter since the fourth quarter of 1998. this ahead of the fed chair testimony tomorrow and edward lawrence was telling you a little bit about what jay powell

plans to say. art laffer joins us right now on that. you know, it is interesting, art, it was, it came out after the market close but you never know people speculating into the close about the fed chairman or secretary of the treasury may have helped stocks. we certainly had a very, very strong close. chairman powell tomorrow is going to say the u.s. has entered an important new phase in the recovery sooner than expected. good news, but also, reiterate the path forward is extraordinarily uncertain. those will be his words from the prepared testimony. your thoughts where we are right now? >> well the future is always uncertain. they say that almost every time, every week. we never livered through times like this before. they're probably true every time they say it. it is not a profound statement to be honest with you. the economy is doing well. bouncing back very nicely. economics dominates everything on life. the economy is just like a life

force. it is doing develop, i'm very excited and very pleased by the performance of the county. connell: the concern is obvious. we've been talking for a week two about some states where we see the virus numbers start to go up. well, will they roll back their reopenings? seems like business leaders are concerned. the business roundtable put a survey out where ceos said hiring plans decreased. they don't expect to get back to pre-covid levels until the end of next year. that leads you to believe some of the people running the companies think it will take a while? >> they are older people. they are more cautious people. they don't want to overstate, we talked about past performance, no guaranties. they are a very cautious group of people and saying a year-and-a-half from now it will be back to full swing. is their version of a rapid recovery. when i look at this economy, i see us coming back. now i have no idea when we're

going to be back to pre-covid positions but when i heard your colleague maria bartiromo talk with mike milken out of california i was very excited about the progress we're making and the in the science area. if we got rid of covid-19, let me tell you through either vaccines or killing it out right, we would be back very, very quickly, connell. i'm quite optimistic. i understand why these people don't want to get ahead of their skis to look silly in the future but i think the economy is doing very well rebounding from a very terrible virus. by the way the death rate, use seven-day rolling average are way down. connell: right and younger people, as melissa was talking about a few minutes ago seem to be coming down more with it now, seems to be playing part of that. sometimes those numbers lag a little bit. is your optimism based we certainly haven't gotten rid of

the virus but your optimism we have can manage our way through this right now? >> well, we should. the opening of the economy is very important to bringing us back. we need to open the economy based upon logic and thought and carefulness by profiling. i'm 80 years old, connell. you're 24. you're far less at risk than i am. i think it is very important, that we understand our own morbidity factors and therefore behave correctly. i mean, you know, at my age i don't run a mayor shown. i don't do all those things i did once when i was your age. i think people are much more careful about their own lives than the government their i was are. i think people are able to take care of themselves much better in general than the government. connell: i wouldn't put it past you. at least a 10-k, art. >> 10-k, right. connell: one question on one other subject -- you can handle that. one other subject before i let you go. it goes back to the first thing we were talking about from the

chairman of federal reserve. the supreme court had an interesting ruling, the head of the cfpb, consumer protection bureau, the head could be fired for any reason. judge napolitano, was on, you know what? that could apply to the fed chairman. here is what he said. >> take that language apply it to the federal reserve or post office or any independent agency and the president can fire just about anybody he wants and put somebody in there who agrees with him. connell: so i guess my question to you, art, we all know president trump is not a big jay powell fan. we read the tweets and everything else. would i actually pull the trigger on something like that, do you think? would it be a good requested in your view? >> i have no why whether he would pull the trigger or not, i don't think he should do it. i think jay powell has done a fairly credible job. i think he is fine in that position. some of the other agencies you mentioned, pull the plug on

them, get them out of there. seriously, i have one question to ask you, connell? if you were mitch mcconnell's son, what would your name be? connell mcconnell? connell: that would be very, very hard to say. that's it. very good, art. you brought the "a" game today. >> you obviously thought about that yourself, haven't you? connell: yeah i have a few times. we'll look for you on the 10-k. you're the favorite. >> it's a deal. connell: art laffer. wow, the "a" game in terms of comedy. everything else, melissa, back over to you. melissa: there you go. i know what i'm calling you now on. boycotting of advertisers on social media is gaining momentum. one platform is the primary target. we're breaking down the fall out next. new predictions from aaa offering a glimpse into what the future of travel could look like. we'll be right back

♪. melissa: halting social media ads. facebook responding moments ago as growing list of companies join the fight to protest the tech giant and its handling of hate speech. susan li is in the newsroom with more. susan? susan: more than 200 brands boycotting ads on facebook, the latest ford and clorox, joining likes of starbucks, coca-cola, unilever and verizon, saying they will pause advertising on the social media sites and on other social media sites like twitter as well. they're starting a movement by a coalition of non-profits including the nape and the anti-death famation league and pointing to hate speeches and divisive posts on facebook. facebook said we opened up ourselves to civil rights audit. we banned 250 white supremacist organizations from facebook and we find nearly 90% of face

speech we took action before users reported to under the circumstances. facebook's stock was down 10%. zuckerberg making a concession on friday as well, talking about labeling controversial posts on facebook in the future. listen. >> so we will start issuing labeling some of the content we leave up because it is deemed news worthy. so now people will know when that designation has been made. susan: we're seeing the stock rally coming back from 3% down in the morning session. this is because analysts are still bullish. bring up a quick graphic. showing what reiterated by analyst, jpmorgan, bear and saying that the stork is worth over $300 billion. maybe they will weather this ad boycott. guys? melissa: susan, thank you. connell? connell: all right, melissa, growing outrage from both sides of the aisle. president trump is denying he had any knowledge of a new report alleging that a u.s.

adversary offered bounty payments to kill u.s. troops abroad. we'll take a look what we know about that so far. that is coming up next. why student athletes from one ivy league university accusing that school of fraud. the broadway league announcing that performances in new york city will be suspended through the remainder of 2020. adding it will refund tickets through january 3rd, with the hope that shows will be able to reopen over a series of rolling dates early next year. 2021. we'll be right back. ♪ i wanted more from my copd medicine, that's why i've got the power of 1,2,3 medicines with trelegy. the only fda-approved, once-daily 3 in 1 copd treatment. ♪ with trelegy and the power of 1, 2, 3, i'm breathing better. trelegy works 3 ways to open airways, keep them open,

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♪. connell: so it's a win for occupied city hall. the new york city mayor bill de blasio announcing a proposal to cut a billion dollars from the new york city police department. this is just a day before the budget deadline in the city. now protesters camped outside of city hall for nearly a week straight. they were demanding the funding be cut. fox's aishah hasnie is on the ground with details on the story for us. reporter: hi, there. protesters here from occupy city hall are elated today after hearing that the mayor has sent over the city council a proposal to cut one billion dollars from the nypd. and use that money on youth and social services. the mayor promising he can do

that and keep the city safe at the same time but the numbers, the crime numbers actually in new york city are surging. the number of people shot is up more than 451% from this time last year. and more than 350 officers have now been injured since the unrest began. this video from harlem over the weekend shows people throwing glass bottles at police responding to reports of gunshots. according to local reports, three people were slashed in manhattan overnight as black lives matter protests mixed with pried celebrations on the 51st anniversary of the stonewall riots. video shows one officer pepper sprayed. another falls off his motorcycle. here is the mayor on spike of violence across the city. >> reality of months and months of people's lives disrupted, loss of livelihood, the loss of life, we're in a particular moment.

there is no parallel in new york history. so there is a lot of factors coming together. reporter: now the police benevolent association just released a statement today about the mayor's plan, saying in part, mayor and the city council have surrendered the city to lawlessness. the protesters here told me they are not leaving until the vote happens tomorrow. it is scheduled for tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. so we will see what happens. connell? connell: thank you. melissa: no consensus. president trump is denying a report that he was briefed on allegations that russians offered bounties to in afghanistan to kill u.s. troops. white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany reiterating the president's claims. >> there is no consensus within the intelligence community on these allegations and in effect there are dissenting opinions from some in the intelligence community with regards to the veracity of what's being reported and veracity of the

underlying allegations continue to be evaluated. melissa: here now to react is rebecca heinrich, a national security analyst and hudson institute senior fellow. first of all, put this in context for us, if the story were true, how big of a deal would be? >> it would be a major deal. for the united states to have bounties on the heads of u.s. forces in afghanistan, by anybody let alone, the russian federation, would be, would be an incredibly big deal, especially since the russians supposedly support efforts to get a diplomatic solution which the united states is trying to help broker between the afghan government and the taliban there. so it would be a very big deal but as you pointed out earlier the president has denied he was briefed. as far as i can tell was raw intelligence which the intelligence community did not have consensus. so it wouldn't have been briefed to the president. i think it raises a lot of questions about who leaked this

information to the media, because it is causing a major problem, you would expect diplomatically as well. melissa: so, what would be their motivation then if you go right to that point? if it is, you know, information that was raw intelligence, that hadn't been confirmed, it hadn't gone all the way up the food chain, how it is described, if you believe that to be true what would be motivation of people who leaked isn't. >> you could have people upset with the way negotiations were going, with the peace negotiations in afghanistan. you can have somebody that was just interested in making the trump administration look incredibly bad, look incredibly weak. you see big political opponents of president trump now, former obama administration officials claiming once again that president trump is taking a blind eye or sticking his head in the sand when the russian federation is literally trying to put bounties on the head of american forces which could be an egregious thing for an american president to do.

i think it is making political hay again especially for the president. i would point out, remember in 2018 the united states took out over i think more than 100, 200 russian mercenaries in syria as they were approaching the united states strong hold that we were protecting. so it is not like the united states of america under president trump has been soft on russia or hasn't defended u.s. forces when they were threatened by the russian federation. melissa: well, add to that, does it make sense that russia would do this, given, isn't their motivation they want us out of the area anyway? weren't we on our way out at this point as it is? does it even make sense they would take this action if it is true? >> i don't want to speculate because it is raw intelligence. i would say though, that the russian federation is behind, they execute people. they take out people outside of due process. they assassinate people. they do support different groups that we don't support. it is because they oppose the united states in the region but

the russians are hedging their bets. if they look to the taliban as a strong force in the region and if the afghan government can't actually get its act together and support a stable government in there, then they might back, they will back the taliban as a last resort. so you can see that they might be hedging their bets. again though, i would expect russia to completely deny it. if somebody did do it, russian mercenaries or russian entities. that is always an excuse, russians behind it. the russian federation is bad. they oppose the united states in a variety of fronts across the world but under the trump administration we have been working to deter and push back on both russia and china. so it really doesn't support the facts, the facts do not support the narrative that this administration has been soft on russia, especially compared to the previous administration. melissa: rebecca, thank you so much. connell? connell: all right. the silver lining of local

travel. americans are ready to hit the pavement and enjoy summer after months of being stuck at home. less air travel could mean a holiday on the road. we'll have details on the numbers behind that coming up. limiting bulk items. costco suspending sales of some of its low-cost favorites. stick around. we'll be right back ta-da!

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♪. melissa: holiday on the highway. americans are eager to get away after months of staying at home but as pandemic fears weigh on air travel it could mean a spike on the road. jeff flock is live in new buffalo, michigan, with more. jeff? reporter: melissa, this is one of the towns i think are beneficiaries of that trend for road trips this year. this is the quint session summer resort town. kind of dead in the winter. but in the summer it comes alive here as you know, this is monday afternoon. so it is not exactly crawling with people but it is happening. take a look at positives on this. gas prices, for example, they have been ticking down all throughout this whole mess, down to the lowest point amidst the coronavirus. and now ticking up a little bit but still pretty much on the downside. back live here, i want to show

you this is in michigan, just over the line, mike, come back, show them the sign this, is open at half capacity. this is a local watering hole here. they are entertaining about half of the folks. most of the people coming from short distances this is the summer, it seems, summer of the road trip. and so that is what folks are doing. take a look. let's see, what else have i got here for you? yeah, the amount of travel and how people are doing it. cars, just down 3% on car travel. any other modes of travel, planes, trains, boats, all way down. and lastly, airbnb did a survey, looking at how people are traveling. most of the people, most of the travel that they see booked within 300 miles of home. so again road trips and also family road trips. people out there taking their children along with them as well. so, say good bih to europe and

say hello to new buffalo township from carolina coast to adirondacks, all kinds of great american locations. melissa. melissa: jeff, thank you for that. i love it. connell? connell: what a travel agent, that jeff flock. whether you're looking for extra roll of toilet paper or brand new costco, pretty much has you covered, right? you can, food samples as they return to 30 locations. gerri willis looking into all this and joins us with more now, gerri? reporter: connell, that's right, the food samples are back. not like you remember them. they have been reconfigured for the era of covid-19. there is no more self-serve. no more free-for-all, no more elbow banging. instead costco rolling out prepackaged items kept behind

plexiglass shields, we're familiar with that and dished out by servers. cvs heading set of up sampling station said this, we're using demos to look at new procedures, how to have effective social distancing and tack talking food demos where we talk about product uses and features. not everything is continued as usual. sheet cakes no longer available at costco because of the cancellation of big events, like weddings, graduation parties. even without the sheet cakes costco serves up an amazing array of products for sale as you were saying like cars. costco auto program sold 600,000 cars last year. more than the largest dealership groups. the price is typically 1100 or $1200 below the transaction price. the idea, serve customers who want to avoid price haggling. more than 30 brands from value to luxury are available. there are other surprises for

those new to costco warehouses or those that haven't been there in a while. 40,000-dollar perfectly necklaces, travel packages. a 1300-dollar kilo caviar pack in case you're having a few people over. connell i know you're upset about the sheet cakes. the good news at costco is, they're still doing the 10-inch rounds. you can still get your cake fix at costco. connell? connell: very good news. you covered it all, well don, gerri willis. all right. melissa. melissa: so you can get a ton of caviar but can't get a big cake. that makes sense. fighting for the reinstatement of varsity sports from one ivy league university athletes may soon have their day in court. our own neil cavuto will be joined by real estate icon barbara corcoran for an america together open house virtual town hall. if you have questions on the changes to the housing landscape amid the pandemic, you can send a video of yourself to fox

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♪ ♪ connell: this was an unexpected blow to some college athletes, students are now trying to fight back after brown university demoted eight of its varsity sports teams to club sports status. the attorney, remy spencer, joins us on that. going to throw up the sports just so people know. women's equestrian and fencing, men's fencing, women's and men's golf were eliminated at brown, women's skiing and then men's and women's squash as well. they just said, you know what?

we don't is have the space, we're getting rid of these sports, club sports, of course, much different than being a division i varsity athlete. so these student athletes are, obviously, very upset. but are they, do they have the right to be more than that? is there some sort of a legal case here? >> so i'm sure you're aware this is not an unusual thing where universities are looking to save a few dollars, trim some of their programs. and that's not that uncommon. but what's unusual in this situation is it's not about money. it's not about the pandemic. this is about making brown university's other athletes for their other programs more competitive. the problem in this situation, however, is not what they're doing, it's how they're doing it. what they did was spend months, perhaps years, it seems, looking into this and made the decision about a month ago and made it effective immediately. originally it was 11 teams or 11

sports that were being stopped immediately with no notice. so these students were left with very little options. students that would have, perhaps, transferred somewhere else if they had more notice, students who probably wouldn't have gone to the school because they wanted to play sports. so that's the real issue here. they're claiming fraud because they were led to believe they'd play these sports, and now they're not. connell: that's interesting. so maybe they have a case whereas maybe the athletic department came out, everybody has a zoom call where they announced this, and according to one of the athletes it was mentioned on that call we're not competitive, and we need to do this. but if they simply came out and said nothing about that and said, you know what? we need to keep people far apart, we're making these cuts because of the coronavirus or we don't have the money, if they did either of those two things, there wouldn't be as much of a case? >> i think you're right. i think that given the unprecedented nature of this

global with pandemic, people are forgiving and understanding of the sacrifices that need to be made on every level. and i don't think that they'd had much of a legal leg to stand on. but what the school did here was say we've been thinking about it, we've been looking into it, we hired independent contractors to review the program. these are the decisions that we made. and rather than give these students any kind of fair notice so that they could make the appropriate changes in their lives, they just made it effective immediately. and that's the real problem here, because many of the students probably would have made different choices if the school had been up front and honest. and that certainly is what their lawyer is claiming in this very aggressive letter. connell: yeah. i'm sure the students are arguing and, you know, understandably that one of the reasons, even though brown's a great school academically, that they chose to go there because of the sport, they wanted to play golf or whatever the case may be. does the ivy league matter at all? they don't give athletic scholarships. people might get financial aid

and the rest, but if there was another school that did give athlete it scholarships, would this be a different case legally? >> i think it would certainly make the students' position a lot more sympathetic, perhaps, to those who don't understand the amount of dedication and sacrifice that it took to become a division i athlete. they've been planning their whole lives for this opportunity, is and the vast majority of college students will not go on to play professional sports, so this is the highlight of their athletic career at college. so the fact that they may not have received tuition assistance or scholarships for their sports doesn't change the fact that they're going to miss out, some altogether and some just for part of their college years, on the competitive sports program that they were promised. and that's the real linchpin to the lawsuit here. connell: yeah. it's tough already for many college athletes who have lost part of their spring season, don't know what's happening in the fall, and this is a separate situation where sports are going

away entirely. rehmny spencer with us on that story today. that just about wraps it up for us on "after the bell." great day for the market. melissa and i will see you at the same time tomorrow. "lou dobbs tonight" starts right now. ♪ ♪ lou: good evening, everybody. this country's radical left seems caught in the throes of madness. the radical dems caught in rabid evil as they're compelled to confront their head-banging failures to confound and try to overthrow president donald trump. they've tried desperate gambit after gambit to stop trump using vile, dirty tricks to upend his candidacy, you remember, in the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign. then they conspired with the left-wing media, the deep state to overthrow the trump presidency with absurd claims of russian collusion